The simmering Anglophone crisis has occasioned glaring confusion in Government circles, particularly, the presidency and President Paul Biya. Concomitantly, the head of state’s unjustifiable inability to react with resolve and expedience to national issues has, also, been attracting scathing criticisms from various quarters both locally and internationally. The most recent of such mockeries has come from erstwhile ally turned opposition kingpin and National Chair of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM, Prof. Maurice Kamto, who has accused Biya, of inviting a civil war upon the country.

He has questioned why Biya, who has enjoyed several successive re-elections with purported 80 percent scores has deafened his ear to the people who voted him to the helm of the country “even when they are in great helplessness, urgently needing his political intervention.” Kamto criticized Biya, reminding him that he is at the service of the nation and its denizens, contrary to what obtains, warning that the entire country risks plunging into a civil war if he fails to put a stop to happenings in the English speaking parts of the country.

Prof. Kamto vented his anger at what he calls the President’s nonchalance at the volcano about to erupt in Anglophone Cameroon, following recent killings in Mamfe, chief town of Manyu Division in the Southwest Region. He dared him (the President) to abandon his philosophy of “Presidential Silence,” which he (Kamto) claims is outdated, open dialogue with immediacy because “the country has caught fire in the Anglophone Regions.”

The CRM December Declaration, signed by its National Chair regretted that Biya’s ‘New Deal’ Government is experimenting adventurousness on the country.

“The terrible change of situation is the result of the insolent indifference of the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, vis-à-vis the problems posed by Cameroonians. Also, the intense verbal insolence and provocation from some ministers and Government officials; the irresponsible policy of the CPDM and its allied parties who, obviously blinded by privileges they derive from power, do not yet realize that the ‘New Deal’ regime has just engaged the country in an adventure. The President of the Republic, the Government, the CPDM and its allied parties have been, since December 2016, permanently informed to the real risks of a civil war in the country by both political parties and civil society organizations, international organizations, reports from specialized research centres, and countries friendly to Cameroon.

“Unfortunately, since the armed attacks by law enforcement officers of the 6, 7, and 8 November 2017, indicate that we have finally moved to a civil war, the popular wisdom teaches us not to nervously break the thermometer which can only indicate the symptoms of an acute fever, but which does not cure the patient, is now proven,” read the declaration in part.

He invited the Head of State to go dialogue personally with the grieving Anglophones, abandon his “political contempt vis-à-vis Cameroonians,” release and stop the prosecution of all persons detained in the context of the Anglophone crisis, organize the national political dialogue that will address the thorny Anglophone question, electoral issues, including the revision of the Electoral Code, and institutional reforms, present the nation’s condolences to families of all victims and Government’s apologies to the populations of the two Regions.

The question many are asking is whether Biya, who has blinded himself to the carcasses in the country he has heralded for 35 years will take caution from an opponent. The answer flies in the wind.